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Talk: From the Angle of Usability + Simone

par Vranken, Apolline ;Kuijvenhoven, Wilma
Référence Architecture on Film (VAi) (1 avril 2025: De Cinema, Anvers)
Publication Non publié, 2025-04-01

Communication à un colloque

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Résumé :

This April, Architecture on Film presents a captivating double feature showcasing two films from neighboring countries, the Netherlands and Belgium. The spotlight will be on Margaret Staal-Kropholler and Simone Guillissen-Hoa, inspiring architects who made history as the first women in their respective nations to establish independent practices. Dutch filmmaker of VANUIT DEN GEZICHTSHOEK DER BRUIKBAARHEID Wilma Kuijvenhoven and architect Apolline Vranken founded the platform L'architecture qui dégenre to challenge the dominant order, establish equality, and promote optimism. This platform serves as a space for sharing practices and knowledge related to architectural, artistic, and urban equality.VANUIT DEN GEZICHTSHOEK DER BRUIKBAARHEID (NL 2013 - 50' - Wilma Kuijvenhoven & Magda Augusteijn)This film depicts the personal story of a woman who wants to change the world and to do so she seizes what she has at hand: the power of architecture. Margaret Staal-Kropholler (1891 - 1966) is the first female architect of the Netherlands. Her villas in Bergen and Richard Roland Holst's studio in Zundert are of exceptional beauty. However, her work also contributed to changing the position of women within pre-war family life. In her homes, in the style of the Amsterdam School, she pays explicit attention to an efficient kitchen in order to minimize housework. This leaves time for other activities such as practicing a profession. Margaret Staal-Kropholler's finely detailed construction drawings are enchanting. In addition, the architect speaks through her own texts. Her daughters and (great) granddaughters complement the film, as do three architects who restored and renovated her homes.SIMONE (BE 2024 - 43' - Eva Giolo & Aglaia Konrad)Simone brings to the fore the work of the too little-known modernist architect Simone Guillissen-Hoa (1916-1996), one of the first female architects in Belgium to have her own office in the 1940s. The film is composed of a series of observations of the houses and buildings that she designed and of archival material that reveals the architect’s own gaze. It offers a visual analysis of the reoccurring particularities that informed her architecture, the distinctive parameters that shaped her artistic identity, and attempts to place her work in its historical context. Giola and Konrad made this film, commissioned by CIVA, in the context of the 2024 CIVA exhibition Simone Guillissen-Hoa.